It's not very often that I see a film in which I am initially at a loss for words. I can usually deem most movies either relatively good or bad based on my first impressions, but Steven Knight's January-released Serenity sure is... a movie. I never got the chance to see this film in theaters, even after hearing both rave and horrible reviews, but I wish more than anything that I could have been in one to experience this with more people. This film, with its endless potential and boundless talent surrounding its story, could have been much more fluently executed but is weighed down by an immeasurable amount of technical flaws. It's very difficult to describe this movie without talking about spoilers, but I will say that the only comparison that even comes to mind is Tommy Wiseau's cult classic The Room. However, even that film has evolved into something completely new; Serenity is just simply atrocious.
Off the small coasts of Plymouth Island lives Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey), a career fisherman who takes tourists out fishing to fund his obsession with catching a legendary tuna. When his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) arrives in town unexpectedly, Baker finds his entire world thrown into a spiral - discovering that his simplistic life may not be as it seems. The premise of Serenity seems straightforward and simple enough to fuel a family-oriented drama such as this. This easily could have been a much more engaging and dramatic thriller if the cinematic elements surrounding this production were not so ungodly. That's not to say, however, that this film was not interesting because I quite literally could not stop watching it: truly the epitome of "so bad that it's good." One would expect a lot more quality from a film with a cast and crew such as this, but every aspect of this movie was such a let-down. The main issue comes from Knight's script, which was incredibly lazy. Watching this film, you could tell that Knight had the ending of the film in his head and the main plot as a starting point but could not figure out how to write characters or story around that. Many subplots throughout Serenity were not explained in both their introduction and conclusion; small details about many of the characters came out of nowhere and then promptly went nowhere at all. This also has to do with the dialogue and how plastic it was. This entire film was packed full of generic dialogue that did nothing for having me feel for what these characters were going through.
Another element that comes into play, however, is the revealed twist. This is one of the absolute wackiest films I have ever seen and the amount of insanity that stems from the plot is overwhelming. The entire plot of this movie revolves around Baker deciding whether or not to kill Karen's husband Frank (Jason Clarke) and dealing with the grief about missing his son. When it is revealed to the audience that Baker's life on the island and all the people on it were all part of a video game programmed by his son, the motivations for these characters became very unclear. This is not one of those films in which the plot twist connects all of the film's details for a satisfying ending; rather, this is a film that only confuses the audience even more. I was sitting in shock at the end of this movie wondering what the fuck I had just watched, as the fantasy elements came out of nowhere to make the dramatic parts of the story so unbearable. This twist also raises a possible explanation as to why the performances in this movie were horrendous: if it was Dill's son writing the story of this video game the whole time, then he might not have a clue about how to program emotions into characters. That all does not matter, however, as it all came down to Knight's writing being lackluster regardless. And for a film with as much gorgeous landscape and potential for a sweet message like this one, that was all squandered so badly on his endlessly frustrating script.
The absolute worst and most excruciating part of this film to even sit through was the editing from Laura Jennings and the performances from the whole cast. Whether it be purposeful due to the twist at the end or not, I could not get past how difficult to watch this movie was. It's hard to believe that this is a real movie that exists in 2019 in the first place, but the fact that this film is made so sloppily is painful. Serenity feels like an unfinished movie or a first pass at what was supposed to be finished later in post. Jennings use of jump cuts and frantic editing made me feel like I was on drugs because there were so many unnecessary edits utilized that did not let the film breathe at all. It reminded me of the quick and attention-grabbing style of Edgar Wright, except there was no detail at all and no reason for the scenes to be cut so fast. To some (me included), Serenity may be an awfully paced and unforgivable mistake of a film, but to others, the twist may make this movie an absolute masterpiece. I could frankly not see past the horrible technical elements throughout, even if they were attempted to be redeemed by an explanation provided by the film's conclusion.
Serenity will undoubtedly be one of the most talked-about films of this year, but definitely not for any of its redeeming elements, of which there are none. With an absolutely stacked amount of talent and so much potential for a more interesting story, there could have been so much to love about this. But when a film looks and feels as unfinished and amateur as this, it is hard to do anything but laugh out loud.
My Rating: ★½
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